


the courage of stars

by cheschi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: MORE OF A TFA AU, Star Wars AU, and zuko is just trying to be more than his family's legacy, katara is kind of like rey, the black star is the death star okay, zutara au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-15 04:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12313431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheschi/pseuds/cheschi
Summary: Perhaps the only thing worse than pirates is, well, space pirates.or, Zuko is 16 when he discovers the Black Star and wonders how much of his life was founded on a lie.--star wars au





	the courage of stars

**Author's Note:**

> well well _well_ look who didn't write her paper and instead wrote this 
> 
> pardon my attempts at writing action scenes; it's been a while since i've tried to write them

Ba Sing Se is just how he remembers it.

Under Fire Nation siege, the city has grown like a black market.

In every corner of the city, there are stalls selling everything from fish lips to the hides of saber-tooth moose lions, but beyond the facade of the buzz of the markets is the desperation and desolation clawing its way to the surface. The rare items are just a cover up for the drugs sold under tables and switched between hands in an attempt to gather enough money to care for the dying loved ones at home.

The Earth virus, they call it in the Fire Nation.

It’s mid-morning and the sweltering orange sun envelops Zuko in a storm of heat and sand. He wears a mask that covers most of his face to protect himself from the dust and the spread of the disease, but mostly to protect himself from getting recognized. All the four nations are too small and his face is too recognizable for him to travel undetected. If he is caught, Ozai will have his head. His feet skid past the white chafed tiles as he maneuvers his ways across the marketplace.

He ducks to the side to avoid an oncoming cart, the pusher evidently struggling to carry several pounds worth of cabbages. A fallen piece of product rolls off the cart and the man hurls curses at Zuko’s head.

Murmurs buzz in his ears as he walks past the small area. Some words he can pick up on. Bits and pieces of broken Mandai, Kantun, Fugi, and Ainese.

_Avatar, force, century._

The storm that his father, his grandfather, and all the men in his family before him feared is coming.

 

 

She meets the boy with the sword strapped to his back while trying to find a map. That's all she needs—clear directions on how to get out of the Earth Kingdom and then she's set. She's counted her money again and again, run her fingers over the thin grooves of the coins enough times to know that she only has enough for supplies for a few days until she can get to where she's supposed to be. 

She'd been out of the South Pole for two weeks, passing through the desserts and trying and failing to wring enough water from the cacti nearby, when she'd stumbled upon the starship. It was deserted, the right side of the ship almost completely torn from the body and buried in the sand. She'd walked in against her better judgment because she was desperate. Anything she could find in there—supplies, food, medicine—would help her make it to the Earth Kingdom.

Katara eyes the control board, eyes darting back and forth to check for any loose panels that could be hiding food. She stops when she sees the small white button only a few inches from where her right hand hovers. The rest of the control board is a flurry of bright reds and greens and oranges, but this seems to be the only white button. On it is a small blue arrow. She narrows her eyes and lowers her hand, chest tightening for some reason she cannot name.

She presses it.

Nothing happens. She waits for a few seconds, and still nothing happens.  

She presses the button again, then once more, but everything stays the same.

A sinking feeling comes out of nowhere but it makes her feel heavy all the same. _Stupid_. She's not really sure what she was expecting, and she curses herself for wasting daylight in this plane and getting nothing from it. She could be crossing more land and setting up camp closer to Ba Sing Se before nightfall.

She turns, ready to leave when there's a sudden whirring noise. 

A hologram springs up out of nowhere and she jumps back. It's a boy, no older than Sokka or _her_ for that matter, dressed in the telltale garb of the Air Nomads, the most peaceful of the Jedi, but there is something in his eyes that make him seem older than the rest of him looks. He smiles at her and she frowns a little. 

"I'm Aang," he says, and she weighs the name in her head.

"If you're watching this, then that means it's been a hundred years already. Whoa, that's a long time," he frowns. "But that's what Master Gyatso said, that this is only gonna show when it's been a hundred years. I need you to come and find me in the Air Temples. I'm not going to be a padawan anymore."

He pauses, and there's a flash of uncertainty in his eyes, but he looks back up, chin set firmly, and meets her eyes. "I'm the Avatar."

 

 

Katara's eyes scan the stalls of the Ba Sing Se, looking for compasses and maps, squeezing her body past the herds of merchants and their carts.

She is tired, so tired and she does not see the group of pirates nearing her when she should.

The canon is pointed at her throat before she can move, and her heart slams against her rib cage. 

She sees the leader's hand close around the trigger and the space guns heat up, and she prays to the spirits above and readies the water in her canteen. 

She does not the boy with the swords coming when he does.

 

 

" _Space pirates_ ," the figure rasps and shakes his head. The bodies of the men with guns litter the ground, and the boy reaches down to swipe a blaster.

“How do I know I can trust you?” 

She hisses it so softly she's not sure if he can hear her. 

The shawl around his head flaps in the wind, covering the left side of his face.

In the distance, she can hear the hum of the Dai Li planes; siren howls, low and screeching, and her ocean eyes pierce his amber ones.

“You don’t, but you need to if you want to survive.”

 

 

The Force is not as rare as one might think.

He has it, Azula has it, and his Father has it. 

Only Ursa did not, but even then, she was descended from one of the greatest Roku, one of the greatest Jedis. He grows up believing that the Force is a good thing, that it only goes to the right people. Which is why he questions his own weak control of his powers and his family when he sees his father’s saber, red-hot and angry, slice the head off one of the Stormtroopers clean of his shoulders.

He stares at himself in the mirror after the ceremony that morning, wiping his mouth after throwing up bile.

When he is sixteen, his father unveils his plans for the Black Star and for domination of the galaxies, and he almost dies for speaking out at the council meeting. _No. The battle station was supposed to be for the protecting our pilots, not sending them out on suicide missions. The Imperial Army is supposed to protect the galaxies, not raze the other  nations to the ground._ Zuko's face burns when he staggers out of the palace, almost blind as he sneaks away to the docking bay at midnight.

He steals one of the starfighters and wonders how many soldiers have died for his family's beliefs. 

 

 

He puts the ship on autopilot and closes his eyes.

Katara sits with her knees curled around her, and reaches out to run her fingers over the faded inscription of the ship's name on the wall. _The Blue Spirit._

His moves so quietly she almost doesn't notice when he walks up behind her.

"What's your name?"

Her first instinct is to lie. "Jin."

He points at her necklace. "That's not a Water Tribe name."

_Damn it._

Her voice is sharp all the same. "What does it matter to you?"

"I saved you from the pirates. And besides, you're on my ship."

"Katara," she says finally, because she's right as much as she hates to admit it. He saved her from the pirates; she owes him a life debt.

"You're the last Jedi from the Southern Pole," he says.

She squares her shoulders. "So what if I am?"

"I heard about you from the Galactic Empire a long time ago. What are you doing in Ba Sing Se?"

"I need to a teacher." A half-truth.

"I need to find the Avatar.

She narrows her eyes at him. "Why?"

She's expecting the worst, but is surprised by his answer.

"He's the only one who can stop my father."

She looks at Zuko, and the determined set of his eyes, the stillness he has to him. She knows what faith looks like.

She believes him.

Katara's lips curl, just slightly. "I think I can help you with that."

 

 

They settle down somewhere near the moons of Kyoshi.

He prods the fish with his stick. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"You look...different from what I imagined," she says finally. She's seen the posters plastered all around the Four Nations. Even in the parts where the Fire Nation shouldn't have power, everyone knows what the banished prince looks like.

"Yeah, most people still think the scar is on the right side," he rasps, and then she realizes it's the first time she's heard him make a joke.

 _No, you just look less well-fed_ , she almost says but doesn't.

"The whole banishment thing didn't really help with that," he says and then she realizes she's said it out loud.

"I-" Her cheeks heat up immediately and he holds up his hand, asking her to let him finish.

"And so I left."

It's a brave thing to do, a big choice to make. Like her leaving home. She wants to ask more but _"How did it take you so long to realize your father was an evil dictator?"_ seems both inappropriate and unbelievably rude.

The fires crackle and they don't say anything for the rest of the night. Above them, there are stars. 

Maybe the Avatars used to look at the same ones.

 

The Force is not as rare as everyone thinks.

After all, Zuko manages to find the only other Jedi looking for the Avatar.

What's rarer, though, is that somewhere along the way they learn to trust each other.

Once, she pushes him out of the way when a laser goes off at his head in a brawl near Republic City. After, Katara explains without batting an eye that she knows he would have done the same for her.

He remembers something his Uncle Iroh told him once before he left the Fire Nation. _Trust goes both ways._

 

 

He gets recognized and they make it away with a little less than the clothes on their back. The only reason they get away is because she manages to sneak her and an injured Zuko out of the ship before they take off.

"Your debt is repaid," he says, woozy when she slings his arm around her after the fight.

"Don't be stupid," she says, propping him up against a wall. "Stay still."

She knows that already. She's saved his life numerous times since they met. Katara looks at him fighting to cling on to consciousness, at his golden eyes fighting to stay awake, and realizes they're going to feel bound to one another no matter what.

Zuko looks ruefully at the fire she's set up. "I'm going to miss the Blue Spirit. I can't believe they hijacked it. _Spirits damn those pirates_."

"We're going to get it back," she promises, lifting his shirt to look at where the blaster hit him, and he winces.

"Right after we find the Avatar," he says.

Before his vision blurs and the world goes black, he can swear he saw her smile.

**Author's Note:**

> i was going for a rey/finn dynamic here but it eventually turned into a mix of that and jyn/cassian's and something else entirely??? oops
> 
> i might come back to fix add more but i was dying to post something


End file.
